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Gidday, Mate -- you write:

> I was thinking, considering some of the NZ govt's
> attitudes, I'm amazed you have troops in the WOT at all.

Our politics in NZ would be thoroughly puzzling to anybody looking in from the outside: indeed, they are puzzling to those of us who live here! It is unlike anything you'd encounter in the USA.

Suffice to say, our Government does not represent the majority view of our Nation on many given issues. And our outspoken Prime Minister certainly does not speak for all of us. She leads the Labor party who, for the time being, has cobbled together a shonky coalition government. But it would be a mistake to think that we all think like she does: happily, we don't! And the fact that our Minister for Foreign Affairs sits in the Opposition, outside Cabinet, should speak volumes: he certainly does!

In terms of the WOT, we have had the NZ SAS (our elite forces) deployed in Afghanistan, pretty much from the get-go. I don't think we are currently involved in Iraq in a warfighting capacity. Ours is a tiny nation -- no larger in population than greater Chicago -- and military deployments take a heavy toll. As it is, NZ takes responsibility for peacekeeping in our South Pacific region, which includes hell-holes like East Timor and Guadalcanal, where there is always fun-and-games happening. To say nothing of Fiji, whose government topples like skittles every ten years or so (usually harmless fun, but we still end up getting involved...)

We also patrol one of the largest coastlines in the world, and a huge chunk of the Pacific Ocean (a very big place!) all the way to Antarctica, to keep it safe from everything from drug smugglers to Japanese Whalers to pirates to illegal fishermen. And we also perform search-and-rescue over the same area...

Not making excuses, mind. There is a finite amount that a small nation like ours can afford to do on big projects like the WOT. However, when we do get involved, we send our very, very best: it would be hard to argue against the quality of our elite NZ SAS.

America has many, many friends in New Zealand who have not forgotten. That we are sometimes represented by impolite elected buffoons is a cross we must bear: after all, there's always next election!